Werley remembers picking the games as Banana Nose

Gene Werley remembers the impact his character 'Banana Nose Banorra' had on area high school football.

November 07, 2012|Keith Groller

High school football predictions have always been a popular forum for creating interest in the games.

At The Morning Call, we've had some kind of prediction format for many years, most recently the Groller-Zambelli Challenge, which has featured me, Service Electric sports director Mike Zambelli and other staffers giving our picks and offering the readers the chance to join in and compete for prizes.

But back in the 1970s, many area football fans couldn't wait to tune in to WAEB, AM-790, for their high school selections.

That's because Banana Nose Banorra delivered those picks as only he could, with his nasal-sounding voice offering a wisecrack or two that had fans chuckling, even if they didn't necessarily agree with the pick.

The man behind Banana Nose, Gene Werley, still remembers those days fondly.

Werley was a popular DJ in that pre-Internet era when radio was king and his morning show "Early Werley" had a large audience, especially on football Fridays.

"Once we started doing it, it was one of those things you couldn't stop, because every place you'd go, people would talk to you about it," said Werley, who is now a sales representative at WLEV-FM 96, otherwise known as "Cat Country" and the home of Eagles broadcasts.

"People would tell me they'd be driving down the road and they'd just start cracking up when they heard Banana Nose and they'd look over at the guy next to them and he'd be cracking up, too."

While Werley said he always followed the local sports scene, he intended the picks to be more "entertaining than informative. A lot of times, who was going to win and why was more because it fit a joke than I actually thought that team would win."

And some of those jokes were double entendres that pushed boundaries at that time, although they'd be considered tame today.

"The segments were 21/2 to three minutes and couldn't be any longer because it took the place of a song," Werley said. "I wanted to come up with an ending for each one that could be like a signature. And I always came up with something that began, 'And remember, as you go through the so-and-so of life …'

"And we would push the boundaries there, too. Like I'd say, 'As you go through the sailboat of life, don't be upset if people admire your dinghy.' And there was another ending about going through the hot dog stand of life. We definitely pushed the envelope, but because we moved along at a fast pace and tried to keep up with the music, we never over-emphasized one of those borderline, trashy lines."

Werley said he was a big fan of Johnny Carson, and the tone of the Banana Nose bit was in the spirit of one of Carson's "Carnac the Magnificent" sketches on "The Tonight Show" or the comics popping out of the wall during the close of Rowan and Martin's "Laugh-In."

Yet, sometimes people were slow to get the gag.

"I'd be at a restaurant with my family and someone would come over and say, 'Uh, you know, Gene, that bit about the hot dog stand, you may have thought you were saying something innocent there, but you know there's another meaning …," Werley said. "And I'd be like, 'No, really?' It was funny."

Werley said, however, that he was told to envision a family sitting around the breakfast table while listening to him in the morning.

"If you're going to do something off-color, you think of a man, woman and children," Werley said. "You want the husband to laugh, the wife to shake her head and say, 'Oh, there he goes again,' and the kids to not know what the heck I just said. I always had to walk that line."

Werley said he didn't originate the character of Banana Nose.

"Another of the WAEB DJs, Joe MacLaine, actually created Banana Nose," Werley said. "And Joe created him as a way to poke fun at Ernie Stiegler Sr., who had a sports program every night and would end it by saying, 'Remember, if you can't participate in sports, at least be a sport.' Joe would follow him on the air and he'd end his bit by saying, 'Remember, if you can't participate in sports, cheat.'

"I had the idea of using Joe as Banana Nose on my morning show to do the high school picks and said I'd write the scripts and be Joe's straight man. That's how it started. And then after Joe left the company, I became Banana Nose and Jeff Frank was my straight man. The difference was I had to pinch my nose to do Banana Nose's voice. Joe didn't."

Werley, who grew up in Slatington and became close friends with a former Allen High and Muhlenberg College basketball standout and longtime area official, the late Gary Spengler, said Banana Nose's run lasted more than a decade.

"I loved it," Werley said. "What I enjoyed about it is that it meant different things to different people. Some listened just for the football winners, others listened to see what I could get away with this time, and maybe get a laugh. The fact that people still talk about it today, some 40 years after it began, is amazing to me. It shows people were listening and enjoyed it."

Did you know?

Former NFL quarterback and current New Orleans radio talk show host Bobby Hebert was escorted from the press box at the Alabama-LSU game for committing one of the cardinal sins of any press box — Hebert was cheering, loudly, for LSU.

According to various reports, Hebert drew the ire of various media members and was warned multiple times for his excessive enthusiasm before everybody had enough.

It was evidently Hebert's second ejection from the LSU press box for cheering.

KEITH'S CAN'T MISS. .. Might as well call it the "Survivor Bowl" because whoever loses Sunday's Cowboys-Eagles game at the Linc is basically done. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman have the 4:25 p.m. game on Fox.